1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spindle motor connector configured with a housing in which contact terminals are assembled and positioned thereof by means of a removable cover for efficient and cost-effective manufacturing.
2. Description of Related Art
Spindle motor, also sometimes called spindle shaft, is used to drive the hard disk platters, allowing the hard disk drive (HDD) to rotate in such a way that data can be retrieved therefrom and stored therein. And spindle motor connector is just the kind of connector for making electrical connection between the spindle motor and a PC board in HDD, which is mounted below the spindle motor.
Referring to FIG. 1, a prior art spindle motor connector 1′ is shown. The connector 1′ has a tailored housing in conform to the geometry of the configuration of a HDD such that a base portion of a housing is offset from a mating portion of the housing. In addition, contact terminal passages 101′ are located in one level, while the mating portion is located on another level making the manufacturing process really complicated to be cost-effective.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,234 issued to Maiers et al on Nov. 25, 2003 discloses a pertinent connector. According to Maiers, a self-biasing spindle motor connector (such as 200) for a disc drive (such as 100) is disclosed. The spindle motor connector (such as 200) includes a body portion (such as 202) and a plurality of alloy contacts (such as 204) extending away from the body portion. The connector may comprise a crush rib (such as 206) extending from at least one side of the body portion and making contact with a vertical wall (such as locating edge 208) of a base plate (such as 102) of the disc drive. The crush rib ensures that the connector is properly biased to a reference edge and situated in relation to the base plate and the disc drive printed circuit board. An x-y control boss (such as 212) prevents the connector from moving in the x-y directions while the crush rib prevents the connector from rotational movement. The connector may also include a rotational boss (such as 216) that is inserted into a rotational control hole of the base plate to prevent rotational movement of the connector. However, the contact terminal passages are generally formed by the same way as what disclosed in FIG. 1, and which does not address the manufacturing process in question.
Hence, a spindle motor connector with improved molding and assembling structure is highly desired to overcome the disadvantages of the related arts.